Post subject: Re: "It's time to play the music..."
Captain_Dude wrote:
Anyone a Muppets fan? (I'm probably talking to a group where 90% of you never even saw The Muppet Show...>sigh<)
Anyway, there's a new album of Muppet classic tunes coming out called THE GREEN ALBUM. The release date is August 23, 2011. Right now, it's streaming on NPR and you can listen to the whole things or individual tracks. http://www.npr.org/2011/08/14/138984517...reen-album
I know there are a lot of Weezer fans on this site. Ya'll will want to hear their version of "Rainbow Connection."
The Fray, OK Go, My Morning Jacket, and others have all submitted some great versions of these songs that have followed me through my entire life.
Anyway...enjoy...and post your thoughts.
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I saw The Muppet Movie when I was 5, and Kermit's version of The Rainbow Connection has always stuck with me. It was amongst my repertoire of songs to sing to my son to get him to sleep when he was younger, and will likely be back when my daughter is born later this year. Just have to remind myself of the lyrics
I caught The Muppet Show in reruns when I was little, and am old enough to have seen The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Take Manhattan in the theaters. I caught a lot of celebrities I already knew of there (due to my father's tastes, I guess, in regards to music) like Crystal Gayle and Mark Hamill...I probably saw John Denver and Mumenshantz (the mimes, whatever their name was) for the first time on that show. _________________ <(: @ >
wow - this has got to be one of the most covered tunes of all time:
Quote:
Artists who have covered "Rainbow Connection" include Judy Collins,[10] The Carpenters, Sarah McLachlan, DAT Politics, Aaron Lewis, Kenny Loggins, The Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Kris Aquino, Kiki and Herb, Jason Mraz, The Pussycat Dolls, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Tay Zonday, Jim Brickman, Caroline's Spine, Estradasphere, Leftöver Crack (with dramatically different lyrics), The Dresden Dolls, Willie Nelson (who is quite often incorrectly credited with penning the song), Peter Cincotti, Jane Monheit, pop-punk band Fifteen, Lea Salonga, Andy Bernard (played by Ed Helms) in The Office, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, The Loves and Trespassers William. It was sung by Blondie's Debbie Harry in a duet with Kermit on The Muppet Show in 1981 (Season 5) and implied that Kermit is well known for the song in the Muppet universe. Rock band Weezer is recording the song for the Muppets Remastered soundtrack with an appearance by Paramore's Hayley Williams. Free Wild performs a rendition of the song on their 2010 Spin Dry tour. Also sung by Vonda Shepard in Ally McBeal (Season 2, episode "Angels and Blimps")
"Rainbow Connection" is the title song on Jane Monheit's 2009 album The Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me (the album title being a line from "Rainbow Connection"). Prior to this album, Jane Monheit's closing song in her concerts had usually been "Over the Rainbow". In her 2009 tour, she usually closed with "Rainbow Connection" followed by a direct segue into "Over the Rainbow".[11]
Samuel Preston recorded a version on Jim Henson's birthday in 2010 and gave it away free on his twitter page.
Weezer and Hayley Williams recorded the song for the tribute album: Muppets: The Green Album, released in 2011.
Incidentally Paul Williams is a criminally overlooked songwriter (these days, anyway - he won an Oscar in 1976 and was quite a notable composer in the 70s and early 80s). Ever caught Jim Henson's "Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas"? Absolutely wonderful music in that. He's got a ton of film scores to his name, and was one of the people turned down for The Monkees _________________ <(: @ >
Incidentally Paul Williams is a criminally overlooked songwriter (these days, anyway - he won an Oscar in 1976 and was quite a notable composer in the 70s and early 80s). Ever caught Jim Henson's "Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas"? Absolutely wonderful music in that. He's got a ton of film scores to his name, and was one of the people turned down for The Monkees
You're absolutely right. Paul Williams certainly IS very much overlooked these days...and no, not just because people actually look OVER him. lol (Okay, I probably have to explain that joke to anyone over 30. Paul Williams is VERY short.)
"Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas" is my all-time favorite Christmas special. (Yes, kids, in those "old days" we actually had to schedule our time very carefully in order to catch it's once-per-year showing on one of the three television stations.) It's also the favorite of my wife...and now my 10-year-old daughter adores it, too. I was really happy to see "Our World" covered on this album by My Morning Jacket. I think they did a great job.
I honestly believe this is one of the best albums to come out in 2011. Even if you'd never heard of any of the songs...even if you'd never even seen the names of the artists covering them (sometimes it's best to not judge a recording based on your "love" or "hate" of an artist)...the proof is in the sound. The sounds on this album are wonderful.
Oh, by the way, some of you may remember Paul Williams in his animated form on Dexter's Lab singing "Just an Old Fashioned Lab Song."
Incidentally Paul Williams is a criminally overlooked songwriter (these days, anyway - he won an Oscar in 1976 and was quite a notable composer in the 70s and early 80s). Ever caught Jim Henson's "Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas"? Absolutely wonderful music in that. He's got a ton of film scores to his name, and was one of the people turned down for The Monkees
You're absolutely right. Paul Williams certainly IS very much overlooked these days...and no, not just because people actually look OVER him. lol (Okay, I probably have to explain that joke to anyone over 30. Paul Williams is VERY short.)
"Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas" is my all-time favorite Christmas special. (Yes, kids, in those "old days" we actually had to schedule our time very carefully in order to catch it's once-per-year showing on one of the three television stations.) It's also the favorite of my wife...and now my 10-year-old daughter adores it, too. I was really happy to see "Our World" covered on this album by My Morning Jacket. I think they did a great job.
I honestly believe this is one of the best albums to come out in 2011. Even if you'd never heard of any of the songs...even if you'd never even seen the names of the artists covering them (sometimes it's best to not judge a recording based on your "love" or "hate" of an artist)...the proof is in the sound. The sounds on this album are wonderful.
Oh, by the way, some of you may remember Paul Williams in his animated form on Dexter's Lab singing "Just an Old Fashioned Lab Song."
I haven't heard Just an Old Fashioned Love Song in a long time - who was that, Three Dog Night? I've forgotten.
EDIT: just listened - apparently they just took the name, not the tune
Emmett is one source of resentment I have against Disney because of their refusal to license Kermit the Frog back to Jim Henson Productions for the special, forcing them to edit him out of all modern-day releases. For those of you who caught the special in the early 80s on HBO every year (like me and my dad) you know that Kermit was the narrator of the special. You also know that in later years the special was edited poorly, making it not as good as the original. I couldn't get Kermit, but at least the DVD I bought for my son has the original scenes as a special feature as deleted scenes, so he can see those scenes the way I did when I was a kid.
Still can't understand why they edited out Ma's final words to Henrietta Fox, muttered under her breath, "fall off the dock", but then don't edit out the possum's comment "That's tellin' her, Alice." In the edited version this exchange makes no sense.
Anyway, sorry for my diatribe - but between that and Song of the South being blacklisted for release and meanwhile all the crap Disney put out in the 90s as childrens' films, I've soured on the company immensely. I think Walt himself would have walked away from them as they exist today, if he couldn't seize back control privately again. Especially when it came out that Eisner also acquired a porn studio when he acquired Universal for Disney in the 90s. _________________ <(: @ >
"All Through the Night" played overtop footage of Muppets, huh? No different than the previously-posted Bert and Ernie "gangsta rap." I don't care much for when people make those videos. Jim Henson was brilliant and that kind of stuff just disrespects everything he was about.
That kind of stuff is just like inserting the rantings and ramblings of a drunken Charlie Sheen or a drugged-out Lindsay Lohan over a stellar performance by Marlon Brando or Lawrence Olivier. What is the point, even?
As Jim Henson once said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye." _________________ Speakers of the House DJ
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